As the winter months set in, a strategic SA industry fears for its future. Poultry producers across the country are recovering from a disastrous 2023, when the worst bird flu outbreak SA has so far experienced contributed to industry losses of R9.5bn that year.
Now an industry vital for the country’s food security fears it may happen again, brought here by migratory birds. Infections flare up in winter, and poultry producers are worried. Bird flu is being listed as the major risk facing the industry.
Poultry producers are without two important safeguards that government could have instituted since the 2023 outbreak. Those safeguards are vaccination against bird flu, and the payment of compensation for birds culled during bird flu outbreaks.
Around the world, bird flu vaccinations are being seen as the best way to prevent the widespread outbreaks that have devastated poultry flocks around the world. In Europe, the US and SA, culling has been ineffective in curbing the disease and preventing its spread.
Attention is turning to vaccination. France implemented a successful vaccination programme for ducks and is keen to extend it to chickens. Other countries are looking to follow suit.
In SA no vaccinations have taken place because the department of agriculture has insisted on requirements that producers say are too onerous and too expensive. Efforts are continuing to reach agreement, so far without success.
Compensation for culled birds is paid in other countries not only to enable poultry farmers to rebuild their flocks after mass cullings, but because it encourages farmers to report bird flu outbreaks. Delays, as has happened in SA, enable the spread of the virus.
A year ago the High Court overturned the government’s policy of refusing compensation for chickens it orders to be culled, because it says sick birds have no value. The government is now appealing against that judgment, so no compensation is happening despite legislation that mandates compensation for culling.
This is a national concern because of the size of the poultry industry and its major contribution to the country’s food supply and food security. Poultry feeds the nation. Chicken accounts for 66% of all meat consumed in the country, according the Bureau for Food & Agricultural Policy. The 1.7-million tonnes of poultry produced a year are twice that of beef (760,000 tonnes) and five times that of pork (300,000 tonnes), bureau research shows.
Brazil has just reported its first bird flu outbreak, and as a result SA has banned the import of all poultry products from the world’s largest poultry exporter. Yet there will be no shortage of chicken meat, poultry producers say, because they have the capacity to compensate for those lost imports. Local production in any case accounts for about 80% of chicken consumption. All of that would not have been possible without a strong poultry industry, getting stronger after the losses of 2023.
Another industry crash would be devastating for poor people, for whom chicken is the primary source of meat protein, and for jobs in rural areas. Poverty and hunger levels are getting worse as food prices increase and the jobless totals rise inexorably. In February Stats SA released a three-year food security report showing rising hunger levels in low-income households.
In 2023 nearly a fifth of all households (19.7%) experienced moderate to severe food insecurity, Stats SA said. This had increased from 15.8% in 2019 and 16.2% in 2022. The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) has estimated that nearly two thirds (63.5%) of all households suffer some form of food insecurity.
Stunting, caused by chronic malnutrition affects nearly 30% of all children under five years, the HSRC reported last year. Stunting affects these children physically and mentally for the rest of their lives. It is increasing because pregnant mothers and children under five years are not getting enough animal protein. Chicken is the solution.
Malnutrition is increasing in a country where 32.9% of working age people are officially unemployed, rising to 41% with the inclusion of those who have stopped looking for work. Youth unemployment is higher still. The poultry industry is an important reason those numbers are not worse. Unemployment is particularly bad in rural areas, which is where most poultry operations take place.
Poultry production is a huge, R65bn national industry. It is the second-largest component of the SA agricultural sector, and the biggest creator of agricultural jobs. It employs 58,000 people directly and supports many thousands more in the grain industry. Poultry consumes nearly half of the country’s maize crop and most of the local soya.
Poultry operations sustain jobs in all provinces, and notably in those worst hit by unemployment — North West, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. The poultry industry is growing, and will continue to grow unless SA is hit by a new wave of bird flu outbreaks. Producers are doing what they can to protect their operations, but more government support is needed, particularly on vaccination and compensation.
There an increasing focus on exports, and developing new markets for cooked chicken products, such as the Middle East. That requires international trade agreements and the involvement of the departments of trade and agriculture. Increased exports will create more local jobs and strengthen the poultry industry’s ability to continue providing the nation with its most popular, and most affordable, source of meat protein.
SA’s three JSE-listed poultry producers — Astral, Rainbow and Quantum — have all flagged the possibility of new bird flu outbreaks as a threat to their future business. They have also lamented the lack of agreement on the rules of a new bird flu vaccination programme.
Because it produces most of the meat consumed in the country, poultry is a strategic national industry, essential for our food security. Any threat to that industry, or government inaction that impedes growth or exposes producers to avoidable risks, is a matter of national concern.
• Baird is founder of the FairPlay movement.
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